Raiders searching for answers after another late-game collapse

ALAMEDA - The last time an Oakland Raiders coach watched his team lose back-to-back games when leading after three quarters, late owner Al Davis brought out the overhead projector and fired Lane Kiffin.

There will be no repeat with Jon Gruden this week, even if that doesn’t ease the pain of these late-game collapses in Oakland.

The Raiders became the second team in the past 20 seasons to start the year with three straight losses after leading the first three games at halftime with the latest blown lead coming Sunday in Miami when Oakland lost 28-20 to the Dolphins.

“Nobody cares right now. They want results,” Gruden said Monday. “We want to win. I think the players see a lot of things to be confident about, but we know we got to finish football games much better.”

The Raiders (0-3) have spent most of this season playing from ahead, holding the lead for nearly two-thirds of the time and trailing for only 22:28 over the first three games. In fact, there hasn’t been a single second played in the first three quarters of any game this season with Oakland behind on the scoreboard.

But the fourth quarter has been an utter disaster. The Raiders fell behind the Rams in the opener on the final play of the third quarter and then were outscored 13-0 in the fourth thanks in part to two interceptions by Derek Carr.

Oakland then was outscored 10-0 in the fourth quarter in a Week 2 loss at Denver before falling apart late again in Miami on Sunday. Carr threw another costly interception and the Raiders let Miami turn two gimmick plays into long touchdowns that have kept Gruden winless in his second stint as Raiders head coach.

“We’ve got to take a deep breath and look forward to the moment,” Gruden said. “We have to apply pressure, not to say we feel pressure. We’ve got to continue to remain confident and poised and do our jobs individually, so we can do our job collectively. I think at times we have some guys trying to do too much. That’s something we really have to solve quickly. We do have good enough players to finish.”